In short, yes, the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 did massively reduce the numbers of Republikfluchtlinge emigrating to the FRG. Between 1945 and 1961, about 3.5 million Germans from the Eastern zone/GDR emigrated to the West, some legally, others not. In proportion to the area's population, this was about thirty times greater than the number of Germans who fled the Third Reich. Republikflucht often had a myriad of causes ranging from family, economic opportunities, or political opposition to the SED. Some East Germans fled the GDR via legal visas, but others on their own initiative. In contrast to the highpoint of the 1950s, the numbers from 1961 to the mid-1980s were around 600000 souls. It was only towards the end of the GDR that the numbers of Republikflucht started to reach the tempo of the pre-1961 period.

It was not just the Wall's concrete and Grenztruppen that was behind this massive drop in emigration numbers. The "anti-fascist protection barrier" (the Wall's official name) as well as the tightening up of the inner German border was a signal to the broader GDR population that the SED's antipathy to Republikflucht was serious and rhetoric was now crossing into a deathly reality. Prior to the Wall's erection, the GDR citizenry had some options in emigration; they could weigh their chances of going through official channels, or, if they felt that would not work, West Berlin was open to them. After 1961, a would-be asylum-seeker had two option: either go through official channels or try to evade the sensors and barriers on the border. Both activities were now very high-risk behaviors, with the former calling attention to some personal dissatisfaction with life in the Workers and Peasants' state and the latter potentially leading not only death to the asylum seeker, but punishments for their family and loved ones. In this respect, the Wall functioned as a disincentive to escape for those with family ties in the GDR. The Wetzel and Strelzyk families' escape across the inner German border via a homemade hot air balloon illustrates not only ingenuity, but that some of post-1961 Republikflucht had to go to extraordinary measures to ensure everyone got out.

The result of the Wall was an immediate and long-lasting PR disaster, but it did reduce the hemorrhaging of emigration. The reality of the Wall sank in and a number of GDR citizens reconciled themselves to living in the SED dictatorship. The 1960s and early to mid 1970s were arguably the most stable periods in the GDR's planned economy (admittedly a low bar), and there was a much greater engagement on the part of East Germans to work within the SED system. Ostpolitik and Detente meant renewed contact with the FRG, either in the form of travel (especially from West to East) and care packages, and modern Western goods in Intershop stores. Such contacts though were highly mediated by the state, and the distrust the SED harbored towards its own population remained one of the central features of the dictatorship.

Sources

Major, Patrick. Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power. New York, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Ross, Corey. The East German Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of the GDR. London: Arnold, 2002.